La Estancia Golf Club – 18 holes in the midst of nature, with no buildings or urbanisation in view – is located in the heart of the Costa del la Luz coastline in Cádiz province, on Barrosa beach in Chiclana de la Frontera, next to the Novo Santi Petri urbanisation – home to a top-class hotel infrastructure, with four and five-star establishments offering a total of more than 14,000 beds.
All the hotels have frontline ocean locations, on one of southern Spain’s most impressive beaches, in an area of Cádiz province that is recognised internationally for its excellent wines, and which also is home to Spain’s main cattle herd, the premier tuna fishing area on Spain’s coastline and one of the finest cuisines on the Atlantic coast (it is only fair to note that the cheese originating from its “payoya” goat breed has received numerous major awards at an international level); as well as being conveniently close to the Alcornocales Nature Park, the white villages of Cádiz province and such fascinating and historical settings as Medina Sidonia, Tarifa, Zahara de los Atunes, Conil, El Puerto de Santa María, Sanlúcar de Barrameda – and an endless number of other attractions that provide this area with a very special charm.
If to all this we add the fact that its immediate environment is one of Spain’s most attractive golf destinations, visiting the area is clearly a must. With that in mind, leading tourism representatives in the area say they are unable to understand why local, provincial and regional authorities are not doing much more to promote the destination, to facilitate flights into Jerez airport and, in short, to take more care of an area that is an authentic gift of nature and which any European country would pamper and fuss over.
The Big Change
Faced with this official lack of vision, industry businesspeople and professionals are not giving up: they are maintaining and improving this unique European area on a daily basis.
La Estancia Golf Club, for example, has carried out a radical transformation in recent years. It has gone from being a course with a magnificent design but certain deficiencies to one of the area’s standard-bearers, after completing the necessary improvements. It has made a 180-degree turn, with a complete change to the layout’s layer of vegetation, an upgrade of the irrigation system, and tweaks and improvements to the design, without any substantial modifications. Two new lakes have been added and the total distance has been increased, to 6,390 metres from the white markers.
“At the moment,” says course manager Carlos de Avilés, “we have a course in optimum condition, one that has become a very competitive product, with an exceptional relationship between quality and price.”
The course is purely commercial, pay and play, with a few season ticket holders, and most of those who play it for the first time express pleasant surprise at the quality of the layout – yet another one of the area’s hidden jewels that astonish us when we discover their impressive charms.
